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"implant the still pulsing organ into the blackened and scorched cavity that is the Vice Presidents chest, beneath a blood-red moon at midnight while members of the Cheney clan knelt in a circle around the stone altar and chanted praise to The Dark Lord for not calling His Son home."

While TBogg is sarcastic in the piece, it does exaggerate to the point of revealing the true nature of the man, Cheney. He does not see all human life, and for that matter, nature, as precious. He does not recognize he is only a part of a web of life, not the shining star on top of creation's pyramid. Well, I differ with Cheney and I will work hard to impede people who think such as he does from getting into office. A lot of us feel that way and work to make our web continue to grow. Is it not wonderful how many people join our community and seek to empower flourishing of Earth and all its parts.

Joan, this man has no respect for Life. Period. He set himself up to profit from an unnecessary war that cost the taxpayers trillions while all those soldiers and civilians died in Iraq. A short time before the incursion, Saddam said, "Bush knows we have no WMD's, but he will invade anyway." The s.o.b. was prescient. Do you really think Cheney's Halliburton stocks were in a so-called "blind trust" during the whole fiasco? He left it so that he could spend your money on increasing the value of his former employer's stocks by engineering an incursion that had Halliburton winning billions in contracts in Iraq. Guess what? Because of security and the "emergency" nature of the operation, the usual bidding for government contracts was bypassed. Mr. Cheney is a cheap swindler at home and an unrepentant international war criminal abroad.

James, I have always felt suspicious that Cheney was the puppet master, Bush the puppet, and the war was created entirely to profit Cheney and his cronies. I thought that from the moment I heard talk of possible war. I still think it.

If true, it does put him in league with war criminals. But also in an American tradition (Vietnam, Philippine-American war, Spanish-American war, war if 1812, and....?), and tradition of most other countries, of war for profit, territory, or just for the power of the warrior leader. Genghis Khan, Alexander, Various Ceasars, multiple Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, French, and English monarchs, all of the slavers, Christian, Muslim, and African, followers of the Abrahamic god, and the Aztecs, Incas, and Easter Islanders.

Damn, here I am pontificating again. Jesus Christ. Plus, putting Cheney into a class with some of history's most effective mass killers. I don't mean to compliment him like that!

Sentient, I am so glad to read your inclusion of Cheney in "league with war criminals". Too many times I read the glorification of all these profiteers and power hungry dictators who ravage life and Earth to demonstrate their vicious "superiority". Not a very noble history.

Joan, somehow I always had a feeling that GWBush was just Cheney's vector into the presidential office, with Rove's collusion. The US would not have elected Cheney. Bush never seemed intelligent enough to engineer his election. It felt like it was really Cheney/Rove (GWBush)

Exactly. Of course George W. got a cut of everything. The Bush Dynasty always did. (Jeb is next. Hide and watch.) We know that congressmen and women have been set in a class of their own, permitted to profit from insider trading. I would love to look at Bush's portfolio both before, during, and after the war. As it is, Cheney took stock options, then planned to enrich them by starting a war. This is Eisenhower's military-industrial-congressional complex come to fruition in a glaring way. (You did know that only the intervention of an administration official caused Eisenhower to delete the "congressional" part.)

Well, I am not a conspiracy theory believer, but as I observe what is happening to our nation, there is a military-industrial-congressional complex that benefits by their involvement in government and sweetheart deals after leaving office. The farther we get from fair and inclusive elections, the farther we get from a republic. I am not clever enough to know what remedy exists other than take all money out of elections. Can that ever happen?

James, You correctly state Cheney "has no respect for Life." I like your choice of words, "Mr. Cheney is a cheap swindler at home and an unrepentant international war criminal abroad." Words that describe his character fit better with me than sarcasm ... just a style thing. In fact, the more accurate and descriptive the word, the easier it is for me to stand on them. Without doubt, Cheney is a profiteer, war-monger, exploiter of people and resources, manipulator, "a cheap swindler at home and an unrepentant international war criminal abroad".